Online transactions have overtaken in-person transactions in many areas of commerce, to the point that even automobiles may now be purchased online. Indeed, an increasing number of services and products are available only online, e.g., downloadable ebooks and music content, news services, data services, and so on. Moreover, far from being the anonymous interconnector that many thought it would be, the Internet has demonstrated an ability to build relationships and serve repeat customers with customized content.
However, one long-standing difficulty presented in maintaining online connections is ensuring that a contact path to a known entity, e.g., a contact path to a customer, remains known. For example, a customer may be identified by his or her email address, and as long as that email address remains the same, the connection to that customer remains stable. However, if that email address changes, the connection becomes lost or unreliable. This compromised connection may result in loss of the customer relationship, and can also give rise to security vulnerabilities.
It should be understood that the disclosed embodiments are sometimes illustrated diagrammatically and in partial views and that details which are not necessary or useful for an understanding of the disclosed methods and apparatuses may be omitted. It should be understood, of course, that the principles of this disclosure are not limited to the specific embodiments illustrated herein.